If
you have been following progress in theoretical physics, you know that a
“theory of everything”—from which could be derived “every known particle
and force in the cosmos”—has been the physicist’s holy grail for some years
now. Unfortunately, although such a theory would shed light on primary
physical processes, it would do little to help us understand the complex
milieu that developed out of those processes. In his latest book,
A Theory of Everything, Ken Wilber draws on several decades of insightful
model building (his own models and those developed by others) to create
a much more comprehensive “theory of everything.” Wilber’s map of
reality embraces the entire mental-physical “Kosmos,” not just the particle-physics
aspect of it. Wilber uses this word Kosmos because it meant
for the Greeks “the patterned Whole of all existence, including the physical,
emotional, mental, and spiritual realms. Ultimate reality was not
merely the cosmos, or the physical dimension, but the Kosmos, or the physical
and emotional and mental and spiritual dimensions altogether. Not
just matter, lifeless and insentient, but the living Totality of matter,
body, mind, soul, and spirit.”

A
Theory of Everything should interest two very different groups of
readers. For those new to Wilber’s ideas, it provides a short (189
page) summary of his model of the Kosmos and his current thinking about
it. For those who have been following his work for years, it represents
an expansion into new territory. In this book, Wilber links his explanatory
schemata to real-world problems and situations, and in doing so presents
a convincing case that only an integral approach to personal and societal
development will get humanity through the difficult times ahead.

The
basic realities that Wilber addresses in his theory building are a primal
ground-of-everything reality that he labels Spirit, and the progressive
development of mental and physical expressions of Spirit. Wilber has
grouped Spirit’s manifestations into Interior-Individual I, Exterior-Individual
IT, Exterior-Collective ITS, and Interior-Collective WE. As shown
in Figure 1, crossed X and Y axes provide the basic framework for presenting
this.

Figure
1 — Wilber’s Four-Quadrant Structure

The
point where the two axes cross, the graph’s origin, also represents the
origin of all development. And progressive development in all quadrants
can be pictured as a series of ever-larger concentric circles having the
origin as their common center. Wilber often represents different levels
of this outward, developmental, evolutionary movement by using diagonal
lines with tick marks on them. An example is Figure 3-1, an illustration
from this latest book. It relates one aspect of inner development—a
gradually-broadening sense of self—to Don Beck and Christopher Cowan’s color-coded
“memes,” “waves,” or stages, of human development, and relates them to social
and cultural development.

Figure
3-1. Some Examples of the Four Quadrants in Humans

No
single graphical expression is able to tell the entire story that Wilber
wants to tell, but by using multiple graphs of this kind, and tailoring
the details to suit the situation, he is able to help us understand a variety
of Kosmic truths. (For a more detailed look at this approach, Wilber
recommends his books Integral Psychology and A Brief History of
Everything.)

Beck
and Cowan’s “Spiral Dynamics” model of human development is one of the core
elements in A Theory of Everything. Concerning it, Wilber says,
“Memes (or stages) are not rigid levels but flowing waves, with much overlap
and interweaving, resulting in a meshwork or dynamic spiral of consciousness
unfolding.” Wilber points out that the overall developmental spiral
involves many developmental “streams, lines, or modules” and that “this
added dimension gives a new richness to the developmental landscape.”
Among the most important of these lines and streams are the self-identity
stream illustrated in Figure 3-1, and streams involving cognition, morals,
and socio-emotional capacity.

Development
in the various streams does not necessarily occur at the same rate.
A problem that Wilber calls Boomeritis occurs when a high level of
development (green—sensitivity) in the cognitive and moral streams is accompanied
by a low level of development (red—egocentricity and narcissism) in the
self-identity stream. Regarding the green stage or wave, he refers
to Paul Ray’s study which estimates that there are some 45 million “Cultural
Creatives” in the U.S.—people who resonate with integral values. Wilber
believes that the great majority of these people are at the green meme stage
in tier 1 of the developmental process, not at the yellow “autonomous or
integrated stage” in tier 2. Research indicates that less that two
percent of Americans are at tier 2, leading Wilber to say, “Almost anyway
we slice the data, the ‘integral culture’ is not that integral.” Yet
Wilber goes on to say, “But it can be. And that is the crucial
point. As the cultural creatives move into the second half of life,
this is exactly the time that a further transformation of consciousness,
from green into mature second-tier awareness, can most easily occur.”

Wilber
identifies four factors that facilitate personal transformation: fulfillment,
dissonance, insight, and opening. “Fulfillment means that the
individual has generally fulfilled the basic tasks of a given stage or wave.”
When this happens the person “is open to transformation” which is then facilitated
by some sort of dissonance. “The new wave is struggling to
emerge, the old wave is struggling to hang on, and the individual feels
torn, feels dissonance, feels pulled in several directions.” Eventually,
out of the dissonance comes “insight into the situation—insight into
what one actually wants, and insight into what reality actually offers.
… Finally, if all of those factors fall into place, then an opening
to the next wave of consciousness—deeper, higher, wider, more encompassing—becomes
possible.”

What
those who are “already poised for an integral transformation—who already
have tasted green to the full and are ready to move on, who already feel
some sort of dissonance with their present state, who already are looking
for something deeper, wider, more meaningful—can do to facilitate this ‘momentous
leap,’” says Wilber, “can be summarized in two parts: we need an integral
vision and we need an integral practice. The integral vision
helps provide us with insight, and thus helps us overcome dissonance and
face toward our own deeper and wider opening. And integral practice
anchors all of those factors in a concrete manner, so that they do not remain
merely abstract ideas and vague notions.”

Regarding
integral practice, Wilber says, “Even if we possessed the perfect integral
map of the Kosmos, a map that was completely all-inclusive and unerringly
holistic, that map itself would not transform people. We don’t just
need a map; we need ways to change the mapmaker.” He calls for a practice
that exercises “physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual waves in self,
culture, and nature.” Regarding the self, he suggests such
practices as “physical exercise (weightlifting, diet, jogging, yoga), emotional
exercises (qi gong, counseling, psychotherapy), mental exercises (affirmation,
visualization), and spiritual exercises (meditation, contemplative prayer).”
Moving to culture, he suggests getting involved in community service
of various kinds, and making use of “mutual respectful dialogue” and relationships
in general to further our own growth and the growth of others. In
the arena of nature, Wilber suggests getting involved in activities
which respect nature such as recycling, environmental protection, and nature
celebration—activities which both honor nature and promote our own capacity
to care. Regarding the importance of meditation, he says, “It has
been shown…that meditation increases the percentage of the population who
are at second tier from less than 2 percent to an astonishing 38 percent.”

While
Wilber strongly recommends integral practice and inner development toward
second tier consciousness, the larger goal is to maintain the health of
the entire developmental spiral. As Wilber notes, “Even if every society
on earth were established fully at second tier, nonetheless every infant
born in every society still has to start at level 1, at beige, at sensorimotor
instincts and perceptions, and then must grow and evolve through purple,
magic, red and blue myth, orange rationalism, green sensitivity and into
yellow and turquoise second tier (on the way to transpersonal). All
of those waves have important tasks and functions; all of them are taken
up and included in subsequent waves; none of them can be bypassed; and none
of them can be demeaned without grave consequences to self and society.
The health of the entire spiral is the prime directive, not preferential
treatment for any one level.”

Wilber
also deals in this book with a variety of other issues. In a chapter
devoted to the relationship of science and religion he advocates a “broad
science” which would not only investigate “the exterior, physical, sensorimotor
world” but also “interior domains and their correlations with the exterior.”
At the same time, he also advocates a “transformative” or “deep” spirituality
that “involves the direct investigation of the experiential evidence disclosed
in the higher stages of conscious development.” In a chapter entitled
The Real World, Wilber deals with the application of integral theory in
specific life arenas. The chapter has sections on Integral Politics,
Integral Governance, Integral Medicine, Integral Business, Integral Education,
Consciousness Studies, Relational and Socially Engaged Spirituality, Integral
Ecology, and Minorities Outreach. In that chapter Wilber announces
the formation of
Integral Institute: a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development
of comprehensive, systematic, encompassing and integral approaches to the
world’s problems—a coordinating center and source of funding for integral
research in the above (and other) fields.

A
Theory of Everything does not disappoint. Like Ken Wilber’s other
works, it is a stimulating, informative, and inspiring read.